Fosamax Side Effects that My Wife Endured

My wife has osteoporosis as a result of having taken Prednisone for many years. This means that at one time, she was on Fosamax in order to prevent any further damage to her bones. Drugs such as Fosamax have become increasingly popular as we baby boomers age and the women of our generation start to go into menopause and develop osteoporosis themselves.

My wife just "jumped the gun" by needing this drug far earlier than most women in her age group, due to the aforementioned corticosteroids. Like Actonel and Boniva, Fosamax is designed either to stabilize the amount of bone lost to osteoporosis, or increase bone density, in menopausal women. Should her kidney function get any worse, she would not be able to take the drug, as there isn't enough experience with this drug in people in kidney failure.

My wife has experienced almost no side effects while she has been taking this drug. However, Fosamax isn't without side effects. Some people develop muscle, bone and joint pain. See if over-the-counter medication (Tylenol, aspirin, or other such drugs). If it is severe enough, you might want to talk to your prescriber, if only to have him or her recommend a course of action or appropriate prescription pain medication. Also, there are some gastric side effects, such as heartburn; my wife gets heartburn, anyway, with all the other drugs she takes for her various health problems. She finds antacids helpful. In severe cases, however, the manufacturers of Fosamax recommend that you tell you prescriber immediately, as gastrointestinal side effects (including difficulty swallowing), as this means you may have to be pulled off the drug. (This is why the manufacturers recommend that you sit up for thirty minutes after you take Fosamax. This is a rather minimal time to be sitting up after taking this drug; with Boniva, one has to stay sitting up for sixty minutes after taking Boniva.)